A temporary home and repository for television and film critic Daniel Fienberg, formerly of HitFix.com and Zap2it.com and one half of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Fien Print Neologism: Daltry Calhoun

Because the English language is a living breathing creature, it's necessary to come up with new words and parts of speech. A fine entry:

New Phrase: Daltry CalhounPart of Speech: VerbDefinition: To be lured under false pretenses and left hanging.Used in a Sentence: We were told the club would be full of hot women, but we were Daltry Calhouned, because the crowd was all swarthy men.Origin: Last fall, Miramax was dumping movies left and right as the Weinstein brothers were leaving. The movies were pretty awful, including "An Unfinished Life" and "The Brothers Grimm." But none were worse than a little dud named "Daltry Calhoun," starring Johnny Knoxville. No reporter wanted to cover the movie on its press day until Miramax sent out a release listing executive producer Quentin Tarantino among the talent for the press day. Suddenly a number of us signed up, suffered through the movie and showed up for interviews just to get a few quotes from Tarantino. We arrive, we're in the room and somebody casually mentions that Tarantino isn't doing press. Suddenly we had no reason to be there beyond Johnny Knoxville, which is worse than nothing at all. We were Daltry Calhouned. Interestingly, we were Daltry Calhouned by Tarantino again at the press day for "Hostel," which was at least a less awful movie.Proof of the Phrase's Subtleties: Something's mere absence isn't enough to constitute being Daltry Calhouned. Case in Point: Yesterday, there was a press day for "Friends With Money." The movie is about the relationship between four women. The press had already been told in advance that Jennifer Aniston was only doing limited TV interviews. We'd also been told that Frances McDormand wasn't doing press at all for the movie. That's fine. We were not Daltry Calhouned by either actress. However, Joan Cusack was supposed to be there, was listed on the talent sheet a day before the press day, was never confirmed as absent until the publicist mentioned midway through that she decided not to be there. That left us covering a movie about four women based on interviews with only one woman (the lovely Catherine Keener, who earned my eternal respect). Thus, we were Daltry Calhouned by Joan Cusack.